Suspect held over Latema Road blast

A suspect has been arrested in connection to the January 26, 2019 explosion at the Latema Road/Tom Mboya Street junction, Nairobi.

Police said Mohammed Nurrow Mohammed was arrested on Biashara Street within Moyale at the border between Kenya and Ethiopia on February 22.

This followed intelligence reports the suspect was hiding there. The suspect was brought to Nairobi at the weekend.

He was arraigned in a Nairobi court on Monday under a miscellaneous application where police were granted three more days to detain him pending conclusion of investigations. He will be produced in court on Thursday.

The prosecution told the court that the investigations are complex and involve a number of agencies, further noting that the accused could interfere with the probe if released.

“Intelligence reports show that he has other associates who assisted him in planning and executing the explosion,” the court was told.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had appealed to the public for help in identifying a suspect in connection to the Latema road explosion.

The DCI produced CCTV footage showing a man dressed in black walking through the streets while carrying a package on the right hand.

In the blast, a middle-aged man had procured the help of a cart-puller to carry an unidentified package across the city.

The two reportedly walked together up to the junction of Latema Road and Tom Mboya Street.

The stranger reportedly claimed to have forgotten his Identity Card at a shop across the street and excused himself to go back get it.

The improvised explosive device went off moments later with shrapnel hurting the cart-puller on the arm and injuring a newspaper vendor on the foot. Surveillance has since been heightened in the wake of dusitD2 complex attack where 21 people were killed.

Several suspects have since been arrested after the attack.